Cyberbullying Effects on Social Health

The evolution of the electronic technology allows us to enjoy being connected to all parts of the world, particularly the Internet. It is inevitable now that information becomes more accessible now through a single click on a popular search engine. Not only it allows us to be connected, it becomes a powerful tool that empowers us to voice out our thoughts through blogs and social media, enables us to be informed with the latest local and international news as well as fashion trends and societal issues, and allows anyone to take a glimpse at celebrities’ what-may-be-considered-as-glamorous personal lives.

However, among its many beneﬁts are its adverse effects affecting a particular group of people: cyberbullying. It is a form of violence common among children and teenagers that aims to embarrass, threaten, or humiliate another person through the use of electronic technology such as mobile phones. It chooses no race, age, and gender—it can happen to anyone, anytime. Children, however, may have the tendency to carry out its effects as they become adults and result in more complicated problems in different areas of their lives.

It has become so common that 7 out of 10 of the youth between ages 13-22 have considered themselves as cyberbullying victims. While it takes on many forms, one of the most popular media of cyberbullying is through hate speech on social media. Over 5 million youth have experienced cyberbullying in the UK alone. To make matters worse, more than 1 million of these young people are cyberbullied extremely every single day.

Such a fact cannot be easily discounted since social media has been an accessible avenue for anyone who has a penchant for attacking someone online nowadays. A global movement called DoSomething.org reveals in a study that about 81% of teens agree that a lack of physical interaction makes it even more convenient for bullies to make their attacks against its victims. It is, in fact, a serious problem leading to suicide and other psychological problems if these victims are not provided with enough support to boost their morale. Such a claim is supported by a study showing victims of cyberbullying are 2-9 times more likely to commit suicide.

How Does Cyberbullying Start?

In a common setting, the victims of cyberbullying are those who have expressed a strong opinion and were harshly received by many. This, however, is not limited to this kind of setting; it could simply start out with a quarrel—may it be at school or in the workplace—worsened by attacks made online. Experts see the potential of chat rooms becoming a primary source of cyberbullying, followed by social media and instant messaging.

Victims of cyberbullying may have the following effects:

1. Low self-esteem

Those victims who are vulnerable to negative comments may ﬁnd themselves losing their sense of self-worth as they may believe in anything their attackers say against them.Furthermore, it would be difﬁcult for them to speak for themselves as they have less conﬁdence to do so.

2. Difﬁculty in getting along with others

Socializing may now become a tedious task for victims since they have an increased trust issues, thinking that anyone they meet will do the same thing to them. Apart from that, they may always become angry to the world that interacting becomes difﬁcult in the long run.

3. Hopelessness

Victims have an increased risk of committing suicide especially when they repeatedly think about the incident and the hurtful words they received from their attackers. They lose hope and succumb to the pessimistic ideas of themselves.

4. Psychological issues

Depression, alcohol and drug abuse, and other anti-social behaviors are just some of the manifestations of these cyberbullying victims that impose risks of harming themselves. These results in poor performance at school or work, insomnia, and losing focus.

In a nutshell, cyberbullying is a problem that affects the overall well-being of a person. That is why it is important for anyone to cautiously look among their friends and loved ones for signs of cyberbullying there may be and refrain from taking it for granted because such a problem is considered not only dangerous but also destructive as it leads to self-harm and suicide. In children, the parents play a vital role, especially that only 1 out of 10 of the young victims inform their experience to their parents.

The good news is, there are remote tracking services that are now widely available in the market today. Parents may need to invest on these services to ensure that their children and their loved ones will not experience these mentioned effects. These tracking services are unique that it is kept on stealth mode upon installation on a child’s phone and parents can safely monitor their children through an online control panel that sees through every action done on the phone—calls, texts, emails, GPS location, internet use, photos and videos, and even chat communications on popular social media apps.

The Internet can be a huge dangerous place especially for children. Make sure to purchase an ultimate monitoring tool for all devices today.